Man Held In Famu Explosions Former Winter Park Resident Accused Of Building Bombs

October 2, 1999|By John Kennedy and David Cox Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE - An unemployed ex-funeral home worker is being held in connection with two bombings at Florida A&M University that plunged the historically black campus into a state of panic.

State and federal agents arrested Lawrence Michael Lombardi, 41, formerly of the Orlando area, after surrounding his Tallahassee home in the pre-dawn hours Friday.

At his house, agents seized plastic piping, a hand saw and other items that authorities say were used to make homemade bombs that exploded on the campus on Aug. 31 and Sept. 22. No one was injured.

Lombardi, who is white, is being held on two counts of illegally building a bomb - federal charges that carry a prison sentence of as much as 20 years.

Lombardi admitted to making a threatening, racist phone call to a Tallahassee television station Sept. 22 shortly before the second bomb exploded in a classroom building, authorities said.

Agents were led to Lombardi by former co-workers, who identified him as the man captured on a hardware-store surveillance film buying PVC piping the day before the first blast.

After Friday's arrest, investigators said they were confident Lombardi acted alone - going so far as to assure FAMU students and faculty that their campus is now safe.

``It is important for us all to realize that FAMU today does not face the same threat it faced yesterday,'' U.S. Attorney P. Michael Patterson said.

But Lombardi's attorney, Timothy Jansen, said his client is not the bomber and that evidence presented by authorities is merely circumstantial.

Nothing in the 12-page criminal complaint filed by Patterson's office places Lombardi on the FAMU campus at the time of the bombings, nor were any explosives found in the house that Lombardi shares with his wife, Cathy, and their two children.

The family bought the home in June for $114,800, property records show.

Authorities and organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitor hate groups said Lombardi has no known ties to terrorist organizations.

Lombardi does have a state-issued concealed-weapons permit and has several firearms at the house, authorities said.

His only criminal offense was a 1991 DUI arrest in Orange County, which his attorney said resulted in a 30-day drivers license suspension. Police arrested him for driving the wrong way on Orange Avenue after leaving Hooters restaurant on Church Street.

At the time, Lombardi was living in Winter Park and had been suspended as a licensed embalmer for having failed to take a HIV/AIDS awareness course, records show.

When arrested, on the DUI charge, he told police he was an ex-Marine and a grief counselor.

At a court appearance in Tallahassee on Friday, Jansen likened Lombardi to Richard Jewell, once a prime suspect in Atlanta's Olympic park bombing who was later cleared by authorities.

``There is no evidence that he made any item that is illegal,'' Jansen said.

Two law-enforcement sources told The Orlando Sentinel that former co-workers have said Lombardi often told them of spending hours searching the Internet for information on how to make explosives.

These former colleagues, authorities said, also described Lombardi as prone to wide-ranging mood swings, which included angry outbursts filled with racial slurs.

In a three-hour interview with FBI agents, Lombardi admitted to making a threatening phone call to a Tallahassee television station moments before the second bomb blast damaged a men's restroom Sept. 22.

During the call, Lombardi spewed a torrent of vulgarity that included racial epithets and threats against the university. ``I've had enough of this. ... They got no business having a college when there ain't nobody there smart enough to ... get a degree.''

He also warned, ``And this is just the beginning, brother,'' authorities said.

According to authorities, three former co-workers said such language was ``consistent'' with the hate-tinged talk Lombardi used on the job.

Another ex-colleague said he immediately recognized Lombardi when he heard the voice on the audiotape say ``brother.''

A similar phone call was made at the time of the Aug. 31 bombing, which occurred in another campus men's room. Although Lombardi has not acknowledged making that call, authorities think the voices are identical.

Until July, Lombardi worked for a Tallahassee vending company and had been issued a FAMU identification card to service snack machines on campus.

The employee who succeeded Lombardi on the route described him to authorities as ``having no personality,'' calling him ``an individual who did not like blacks and has used the `n' word.''

Along with the audiotape, the PVC pipe purchase is what brought authorities to Lombardi.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, along with the FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, identified the pipe used in the Aug. 31 explosion as being distributed solely by a Lowe's store in Tallahassee.